Last few days and thinking about summer break

The last few days continued to be slow, without Sofia. I am grateful to have my little company everywhere and we made the best out of our days. I met two old colleagues for lunch one day, with my boss the next, and we played monopoly when was raining.

We also finished watching MANIFEST (two seasons). It’s an adult series but Lizzy loves it and gets super excited after dinner to watch few episodes with me. She’d ask so many questions along the way. Now that is over, we are both sad.

Sofia seems to have a good balance of fun, learning, and friends. I wish she writes longer letters but so far they have been short (maybe because she tried to reply to me in spanish).

I like that the camp uploads tons of pics everyday. I only spot Sofia in few but good enough to get the sense of the good vibe in the camp

Yesterday we visited Planet Word museum, a new one that opened this year and I’ve heard great things about it. It took 1 month pre-booking to get a pass. Look how cool is the elevator

Lizzy is a bit small to enjoy it fully but we had fun exploring

We are almost done with packing too. Yesterday we got the last package, iMac, now I’ll have a new laptop to play with! Super excited and almost did not arrive.

I am starting to feel “home sick” of manila, which is perfect timing as we are leaving very soon. I was surprised as I don’t know if you can call “home” a place that you live only 4 years. Things that I miss from Manila:

• our home with everything we need.
• our helper to keep it clean and organized.
• our pool, especially for the girls.
• my colleagues, to be in the same time zone would be nice. Also, I plan to meet some of them when I go back. F2f meeting needs to come back.
• routine. Although we have a routine here, it’s constantly evolving.
• reading. I haven’t read much during this trip as I don’t have time to be alone. I have over 50 books waiting for me, can’t wait to start.
• journaling. I did zero journaling for the same reason, and really miss it.
• podcasts. No run, no podcast.

Things that I started in this trip and plan to continue

• body weight exercise. I haven’t run for over a month now due to my ankle, still not healed. I am loving body weight exercises and plan to continue even when I can run again.
• filter coffee. I used to drink only nespresso coffee. Since we are here, I’m drinking normal filter coffee, which is lighter, and I am loving it. i bought a pour over coffee that comes with the filter, and plan to continue this ritual.
• clothing/style. This trip made me realize that I’ve been too casual since the pandemic. Often I’d be in PJ the whole day. It is comfortable but also boring. I bought some new pretty lounge wear and too much lululemons. They are comfortable and make me feel put together, if you know what I mean. I am excited to continue putting few minutes of thoughts to feel put together, even if I’m just staying at home. It put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.
• watch good series. We watched “Mare of Easttown”, “Startup”, “Innocent”, and “Manifest”. My flight back I’ll continue with Succession. My favorite is Startup, I’m especially obsessed with Ronald (as my hubby). It’s really fun to watch a good series. I plan to continue if there are good ones, especially during summer break.

On summer break. You might think I’ll go back and dive into work fully energized. Well, not really. This trip has been a good mental break from the covid situation in Manila but didn’t get the chance to unplug from work. I am technical on leave this week but had to join few meetings and still opened my inbox. So i plan to take 2-3 weeks of complete unplug in July to get fully recharged before August.

Today’s plan:

• covid test (pre-travel)
• Georgetown visits to antique stores (hubby’s choice)
• last playground visit?
• check 1000x inbox to see if I got a mail from Sofia (since none yesterday)